Environmental Change in Lesotho

By challenging commonly-held narratives about land-use change in Lesotho, this book brings forth some interesting and new ways of looking at land-use change, thus enriching the larger debates and decisions on sustainable land use and management.

Environmental Change in Lesotho identifies and analyzes the drivers of land-use change and the consequences of these changes on the livelihoods of rural land-users/managers. To accomplish this, a combination of tools from the social sciences and environmental fields were developed to identify causes and consequences of land-use change at selected levels, using a 'nested' approach. These methods were then applied to a case study of two villages in the Lowland region of Lesotho. This book is directed at environmental and social science experts, researchers, decision-makers, and development/aid workers interested in understanding the intricate human-environment relationship as it relates to land-use change in a changing biophysical, socio-economic, political and institutional context, coupled by HIV/AIDS, changing demographics, local perceptions and what is termed here 'dependency syndrome'.

This Lesotho case study discusses HIV/AIDS and 'dependency syndrome' in the context of human geography Contributes policy-relevant knowledge for decision-making on sustainable land use Challenges some commonly-held myths about land-use change

Texte du rabat

The aim of this book is to identify and analyze the drivers of land-use change and the consequences of these changes on the livelihoods of rural land-users/managers. To accomplish this, a combination of tools from the social sciences and environmental fields were developed to identify causes and consequences of land-use change at selected levels, using a 'nested' approach. These methods were then applied to a case study of villages in Maseru and Mohale's Hoek districts in the Lowland region of Lesotho.

Based on the research findings, key proximate drivers of land-use change in the Lowland villages were established. These were drought, lack of water, land mismanagement, HIV/AIDS and 'dependency syndrome'. These were acted on by underlying and other drivers to bring about major changes in land-use. The book offers an understanding of the actions of local land-users and managers, and their responses to biophysical, social-political, environmental, HIV/AIDS and other stresses, giving an insight into a household's decision-making behaviour, degree of vulnerability and hence their resilience and adaptive capabilities and mechanisms.

This book is directed at the wide scientific and non-scientific audience including environmental and social science experts, researchers, decision-makers, and development/aid workers interested in understanding the intricate human-environment relationship as it relates to land-use change in a changing biophysical, socio-economic, political and institutional context, coupled by HIV/AIDS, changing demographics, local perceptions and what is termed here 'dependency syndrome'.

Contenu
Introduction.- The Wealth of Knowledge: Drivers and Consequences of Land-Use Change.- Lesotho: Macro to Micro Perspectives of Land-Use Change.- Village Perceptions of Land-Use Change.-Village Patterns of Land-Use Change.- Discussing Causes and Consequences of Land-Use Change in the Lowland Region.- Conclusions: So What?.- Index.